Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-09-28

Dack the SiandererS.S .Hol6n Stlrk, ScOtc
martyr, condemned with her husband t
death for Christ's SAKE, said to.her husband
'sRejoice We have, lived together man.
Joyful days, sbut this day wherein we mus
Idle together ought to be most joyful to u
both. Therefore, will not bid ayou good
night; for soon we shall meet in the heaven
best Christian character is demonstrated.
Ego intoanother depar tment, and fine
that those gfeat'de denominations of Christians
which have sbeenlmost abused have spread
|. the, most rapidly. No good man was ever
mofe vilely maltreated than John Wesley.
His followers were hooted at and maligneG
and called by every detestable name that
internal ingenuity could invent, but the
hotter the persecution the more rapid the
spread of that denomination, until you
tknow what great host they have become
andwhat tremendous force for God and
the truth they are welding all the world
over. 1t was persecution that gave Scot
land to Presbyterianism. 1t was persecu-
tion which gave our own land first to civil
liberty and afterward to religious freedom.
Yea, may go further back and say it was
| persecution that gave the world the great
salvation of the Gospel. The ribald mocke-
ry, the hungering and thirsting, the unjust
trial and ignominious death where all the
force of helPs fury was hurled against the
cross, was the introduction of that religion
which is yet to be the earth's deliverancc
from guilt and suffering, and her everlast-
ing enthronement among the principalities
of heaven. The State has sometimes said
to the Church, "Come, let me take your
hand and will help you" What has been
the result? The Church has gone back and
has lost its estate of holiness and has be-
come ineffective. 1t other times the State
has said to the Church, 81 will crush you. !"
What has been the result After the storms
have spent their fury, the Church, so far
from having lost any of its force, has in
creased and is worth infinitely more after
the assault than before it. The Church is
far more indebted to the opposition of civil
government than to its approval. The fires
OF the stake have only been the torches
| which Christ held in his hand by the light
of which the Church has marched to her
| present position. In the sound of racks
and implements Of torture hear the rumb-
| ling of the wheels of the Gospel chariot
Scaffolds of martyrdom have been the stairs
by which the Church has assembled. Aqua
fortis is the best test of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject irnpresses us
long ago had these brothers sold Joseph
into Egypt. They had suppressed. the
crime, and it was profound secret.well
kept by the brothers. But suddenly the
secret ,s out. The old father hears that
his son is in Egypt, having been sold there
by the malice of his own brothers. How
their cheeks must have burned and their
hearts sunk at the flaming out of tt:is sup
pressed crime. The smallest iniquity has
a thousand tongues and they will blab ,,out
an exposure. Saul was sent to destroy the
Canaanites, their sheep and their oxen.--
But when he got down there among the
pastures he saw some fine sheep and oxen
too fat to kill, and so he thought he would
| steal them. He drove them towards home,
but stopped to report to the prophet how
we'll he had executed his commission, when
in the distance the sheep began to bleat
and the oxen to below. The secret was
out, and Samuel said to the blushing and
confounded Saul "What means the bleat.
ing Of the sheep that hear and the lowing
of the cattle % Aye, my hearers, you can
not keep an ipiquity quiet. At just the
wrong time the sheep will bleat and the
oxen will below. Achan cannot steal the
| Babylonish garment without getting stoned
| to death, nor Benedict Arnold betray his
country without having his neck stretched.
Look over the police arrests, these thieves,
these burglars, these adulterers, these
coHnterfeiters, these highwaymen, these as
sassins. They all thought they could bury
| their iniquity 60 deep down that it would
never come to resurrection. But there
was some shoe that answered to the print
in the sand some false keys found in pos
session, some bloody knife that whispered
of the deed, and the public Indignation
and the anathema of outraged law hurled
him into the Tombs or hoisted him on the
gallows. at the close Of the battle be-
| tween the Dauphin of France and the
| Helvetians, Burchard Monk wassso elated
with the victory that he lifted his helmet
| to look off upon the field, when wounded
soldier hurled stone that struck his un-
covered forehead and he fell. Sin will al
| ways leave some point exposed, and there
is no safety in iniquity. Francis the First,
King of France, was discussing how it was
best to get his army into Italy. Amaril,
the court fool sprang out from the corner
and said to the King and his staff officers
"YOu had better be thinking how you will
get your army back out of Italy after once
you have entered" In other words, it is
easier for us to get into sin than to get oat
Of it. Whitefield was riding on horseback
in a lonely way with some missionary
money in a sack fastened to the saddle
bags. A highwayman sprang out from the
thicket and put his hand out toward the
gold, when Whitefeld turned upon him and
said; "That belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ, touch it if you dare and the vii
liam fell back empty-handed into the thick
ct. 0, the power of conscience! If Of
Tended, it becomes Gods avenging minis
ter. Do not think that you eau hide any
great and protracted sin iu your hearts. =
In an unguarded moment it will slip off OF
the lip, or some slight occasion may for a
moment set ajar this door of hell that you
wanted to keep closed. But suppose that
in this life you hide it, and you get along
with that transgression burning in your
heart as ship on fire within for days may
hinder the flame from bursting out by
keeping down the hatchway, yet at last, in
the Judgment, that iniquity will blaze out
before the throne of God and the universe.
Furthermore, learn from this subject the
inseparable connection between all events,
however remote. Lord Hastings was be-
headed one year after he had caused the
depth of the Queens children, iu the very
month, the very day, the very hour and the
very moment. There is wonderful preci-
sion in the Divine judgments. The universe
is only one thought OF God. Those things
which seem fragmentary and isolated are
only different parts of that one great
thought. How far apart seemed these two
events-Joseph sold to the Arabian mer-
chants and the rulership of Egypt. Yet
you see in what mysterious wayGod con-
nected the two in one plan. So all events
are linked together. You who are aged can
look back and group together "a thousand
things in your life that once seemed isolat-
ed. One undivided chain of events reached
from the Garden Of Eden to the cross of
Calvary, aud thus up to heaven. There is
a relation between the smallest insect that
huns in the summer air and the archangel
en- his throne. God can trace a direct an
cestral line from the blue jay that last
spring built its nest in a tree behind the
house to some one of that flock of birds
which when Noah hoisted the ark's win
dow, with whirl and dash of bright wings
went out to sing over Mount Ararat. The
tulips that bloomed this summer in the
flower bed were nursed Of last winters
snow flakes. The furtherest star on one side
the universe could not look to the fnrtherest
star on the other side and say: 'You are no